Air New Zealand and Virgin Australia seek to procure aviation biofuel in the region

Air New Zealand and Virgin Australia have partnered to jointly investigate whether environmentally friendly aviation biofuel can be produced locally in New Zealand and Australia. The alliance partners have issued a “request for information” to the market to explore the opportunity to procure locally produced aviation biofuel.

Captain David Morgan, Air New Zealand’s chief flight operations and safety officer, said the move is part of the airline’s carbon management programme.

“By working in partnership with our alliance partner Virgin Australia we hope we can stimulate the local market, drive innovation and investment and potentially uncover a sustainable biofuel supply suitable for our respective operations,” he said.

Virgin Australia’s head of sustainability, Robert Wood, said the airline was committed to stimulating the development of a sustainable aviation biofuel industry in the region.

“We are seeing the development of the aviation biofuel industry accelerate internationally but that is not yet the case for our region,” Wood said. “We are confident that our collaboration with Air New Zealand to procure a large volume of aviation biofuel will de-risk investment in the sector, creating high- tech, high-skilled jobs in the region,” he added.